


Diplomatic Relations

by melonbutterfly



Series: Diplomacy [2]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-04
Updated: 2012-10-04
Packaged: 2017-11-15 15:14:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,791
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/528641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/melonbutterfly/pseuds/melonbutterfly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It figures that Tony would have to go to another solar system to find his match. And it figures that he'd be a Prince with more issues than even Tony can boast.</p><p>Tony wouldn't have it any other way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Diplomatic Relations

When Loki steps out of the bathroom, he's clad only in a black silk robe tied carelessly around his middle. It yawns open widely to reveal his creamy chest littered with a few red marks that Tony smugly recalls leaving there – they'll be gone before dinner but right now they're still visible.

Correctly interpreting Tony's expression Loki playfully rolls his eyes, then drapes himself elegantly on the settee, one arm hooked over the arm of it and one foot on the seat, the sharp angle of his knee and gravity doing their part in pulling the robe dangerously low on his thigh. Barely an hour ago, Tony's head had been buried between those delicious thighs, licking and sucking and biting. If he squints, Tony thinks he can see teethmarks on that milky skin. It makes the smirk on his face widen, taking a sensual twist.

"Enjoying your reading?" Loki purrs, eying the scroll Tony had been skimming until Loki had appeared.

"Really not." Closing the scroll, Tony tosses it away. "Terribly boring." He eyes Loki hungrily. "You sure you're not up for another round?"

Loki sighs and pouts. "Really not, if I am to appear in court on time and properly clothed."

If that isn't a challenge… Tony slides out of bed and pads over to the settee. Loki's bewitching green eyes stay on Tony's as Tony supports one hand on the back of the settee right next to Loki's head. He leans in until Loki can feel his breath on his lips. "Perhaps you should just go naked," Tony murmurs lowly, letting his eyes flicker down to Loki's lips and up again.

"I doubt that would be appropriate," Loki murmurs back, chin tilting up a mere fraction, just enough so their lips brush together in not quite a kiss.

"Oh, you look the best when you wear absolutely nothing," Tony whispers, breaching that last hair's breadth of space between them for a kiss. Their lips slide together slowly, languidly, not a hint of tongue but no less sinful for it.

As they break apart, Loki smiles, secretive with a hint of darkness lurking beyond. "You have no idea of which you speak."

Oh, but Tony has heard rumors, whispers carried to their diplomatic party of the second Prince's true heritage. If Fury had been there he would have used it to their advantage, but thankfully Steve is leading diplomatic relations and when Natasha had suggested it he had flat-out refused. This is the reason why they had sent Steve to head the negotiations in the first place; he's painfully honest. He does have more diplomatically shrewd people on his team but Earth – Midgard – is very aware of its position when compared with the other realms. They're not even close to the technologically most advanced, even if they are the most technological world, and that's not to speak of magic, in which they barely believe when they witness it with their own eyes.

That's why Tony is here; as a sort of technology ambassador to liaise magic. The Aesir had been a bit baffled at this idea but had readily put forward their most skilled magician, who also just happened to be their younger Prince. Loki informed Tony that it's less generous than it seems since they don't hold Loki in high regard, but Tony didn't care to pass that information on to the others; he just doesn't give a fuck. Loki is drop dead gorgeous, witty and has a quicksilver mind; Tony has never enjoyed himself as much with anybody else. Figures he'd have to go to another solar system to find his match.

"I do, somewhat," Tony says lowly, letting the tip of his index finger follow the contour of Loki's jaw. Loki's eyes darken, the skin going tight around his eyes with displeasure, but if they're close enough for Loki to drop hints, they're close enough for Tony to say this. "I can't find it in me to mind."

Loki's face creases into a cold sneer. Abruptly he pushes Tony away and rises, walking over to his dressing room. "You have no idea of which you speak," he says again, but it's not at all playful anymore.

"I do," Tony calls after him; Loki didn't close the door after himself so he can still hear. "I've been doing some reading in your library. That amulet you gave me was very helpful." Gift of the Tongues, Loki had called it. Of course Tony had taken a dirty twist to it and proven to Loki that he had a perfectly talented tongue without the help of any amulet. It had turned out that the amulet actually let one understand all scripts and languages, written and spoken, which had proven to be incredibly nifty. Naturally, Tony hadn't wasted a thought on passing it on to anybody else and had instead taken to explore the library, reading stuff on Jotunn and whatever prejudices the Aesir had – and that they were prejudices, Tony was absolutely sure. Most texts on Jotunn Tony had gotten his hands on had read appallingly like colonialist treatises on the "savages" i.e. Native Americans or whatever other native people they were invading. A lot of hearsay ("my brother's friend's cousin's husband's uncle heard…"), a lot of cultural differences and misunderstandings and a lot of assholes stomping around and trying to take what wasn't theirs (on both sides, certainly, but it's not Asgard that is in ruins today with Jotunheim holding its most important relic hostage).

Tony doesn't at all know how to handle this. There are whispers and rumors about Loki being actually Jotunn by blood and they are close enough for Loki to have let Tony see a fracture of his self-loathing so, in light of all the facts, Tony considers it pretty much a given that there's some kernel of truth to Loki's adoption.

"Oh, have you?" Loki says silkily, appearing in the doorway. He's wearing a shirt and nothing else, a smile playing around his lips, but it's cold and razor sharp. "And what have you learned?"

He approaches Tony, movements fluid like a panther stalking its prey, and Tony can't hide an apprehensive swallow. He's intimately aware of how dangerous Loki is, having witnessed him up close in battle when the Chitauri had attacked Earth and the Aesir had come to their aid. The number of highly dangerous alien warriors bred for waging war and waging war only that Loki can eviscerate within seconds without even the aid of magic is terrifying. Also incredibly hot.

Still. Tony tilts his chin up and meets Loki's hard eyes without hesitation. "That it's all full of crap. The bullshit I read in the library, and the crap these people say about Jotunn – I don't believe a word of it."

That brings Loki up short. He's remarked once that he finds Tony's unique viewpoint refreshing (also incredibly frustrating, exasperating and at times even arousing). Tony takes that to his advantage now, reasonably sure that with the narrow viewpoint of most Aesir, Loki probably has never heard anything like this. "It's all prejudices, rumors and hearsay with very few facts, not to mention facts from reasonably reliable sources. And, babe, if _I_ can tell that much, you should be able to see it as well. Besides, the greatest, most valid proof that it's all false is absolutely undeniable."

Loki has frozen mid-step, eyes focused on Tony. For a moment he looks undecided, but then he gives in enough to utter a faintly questioning, definitely mocking, "Oh?"

But it's shaky, so Tony knows he's getting to him. He walks up to Loki and touches his chest, right above his heart (and isn't it interesting that, even with him being a different species twice removed, his heart is still in the right place? Both metaphorically and physically, even. "You," Tony says simply. "You're not bloodthirsty – or at least not more so than some other Aesir whose names shall not be mentioned at this moment, you're certainly not brutal, and you're definitely not savage. The last thing you are is stupid. And if you are none of these things, what must logically follow is the conclusion that not all Jotunn are these things, even if having grown up in a culture that perpetuates these sort of… qualities." Which Tony has no idea if true or not; it's impossible to say with the very biased reading material available to him.

For a very long moment Loki just looks at him. Tony can't tell at all what he's thinking; that's the thing with Loki. You only get to see what he _lets_ you see; there is no way to find out anything he's thinking or feeling if he doesn't allow it. Eventually he shifts, face unreadable, but his voice is soft when he says again, "You have no idea of which you speak."

Taking a step back so Tony's hand falls off his chest, Loki turns around and walks soundlessly back into his dressing room.

He leaves the door open, so Tony can tell him, "I think right now, I'm one of very few people who sees somewhat clearly where this issue is concerned." He wants to add his suspicion that Odin at least has an inkling, because why else would he have put up a ban on killing Jotunn? But it's no secret that Odin and Loki's relationship is on very shaky ground, and Tony knows something of difficult father-son relationships and of being cracked open like Tony just did to Loki. It is a discussion for another day.

When Loki leaves his dressing room sometime later he's clad in his form-fitting, incredibly complicated Aesir leather gear. He doesn't look at Tony as he walks by and leaves his chambers for the daily afternoon court meeting, but Tony knows that he doesn't expect Tony to be gone by the time he returns.

He changed shirts. Instead of the dark grey one from before he's now wearing a deep red one under all his leather. He's never worn red before, which Tony puts down to the fact that his brother's battle armor cape is red, even if generally Thor doesn't seem to prefer any one color the way Loki clearly prefers black.

Red is also the color of Tony's suit, which Loki has paid an inordinate amount of attention to, fascinated either by the intricate technology or how superfluous it all is in the face of Loki's own inherent abilities of magic and superior physical strength. Tony always wears something red on his person, even if it's just his underwear; Loki has commented upon the sentimentality once. Tony had shrugged and said, "What can I say, it's my trademark. It's just… part of me."


End file.
